Lost In The Sound of An Empty Room
by kamy2425
Summary: Set in the YGOTAS-verse, What if Melvin won the duel against the Pharaoh? What would he do next? Sure, there's the obvious Ruling-The-World agenda...but how exactly can he do that? And wouldn't he get lonely? It IS a big Blimp and a long way to Domino after all! What can he do to kill time? Well, read ahead to find out!
1. He Won!

Lost In The Sound of An Empty Room

The Shadow Game has come to a conclusion. The purple fog started to disintegrate, as everyone was petrified at the sight of Lifepoints hitting zero. But the most shocked of them all was the Egyptian in the purple cloak, arms weighted down as he stared straight at his opponent's monsters shattering into pixelated dust.

"I…." Melvin stuttered, " I won…?"

"He won?" questioned Tristan, Tea, Mokuba, and Kaiba.

Joey murmured under his breath, "No freaking way…"

"I…" Melvin repeated in shock, "I won?"

The Pharaoh's puzzle crashed down on the ground as the sky finally turned back into a clear blue sky. No one expected this to happen. The King of Games has lost to Melvin, of all villains! The duel was over, and even the victor still could not believe his eyes.

Hidden piñatas started to explode around this silent group of people. Confetti fell down from the sky as it filled up the stage. Melvin had totally forgotten that he installed those just in case he won.

And he did.

"No Effing-way! I won!" finally cheered Melvin with his fists up to the sky, "Hahaha! I'm the happiest villain in the world!"

Melvin twirled around as he sang an off-key tune about how he defeated the Pharaoh. Meanwhile, everyone else stood there just letting Melvin savor his victory, while the Pharaoh had his knees to the ground, questioning where his protagonist powers had gone off to.

Melvin swung his cape triumphantly as he left in a flash towards the elevator. From up the tower, everyone stared at the tiny far off Melvin laughing and running with joy towards the Kaiba Corp Blimp.

"Hello! Who wants a hug?"

In an instant, all of Kaiba's employees dashed away from the ship, leaving a cloud of dust as they scattered away like ants.

"Um, guys?" asked Joey, "Shouldn't we…do something? Why aren't we doing something?"

"Oh, please," Kaiba scoffed in the background as he ended up joining the friendship group standing on the edge of the stadium, "if you haven't forgotten, the blimp was damaged by that filler with the green-haired kid."

Tristan shed a manly tear, "He was my favorite villain."

Seto turned his back away from the nerd herd as he stared at the blimp from the corner of his eye,

"Anyways, unless this Melvin is a super genius, I'm sure he won't find a way to-"

"Hey…" Melvin exclaimed from far away, "What is this _ON_ switch over here? Sounds interesting~"

"Oh, darn." Seto cursed.

The blimp turned on and started to ascend, rising twenty feet up from the ground. Kaiba's brows wrinkled in disgust, "Mokuba, remind me to fire everyone responsible for this."

"Everyone except me, right big bro?"

"I'll think about it," responded Kaiba, as he turned to the sore loser on the ground, "Hey Pharaoh! Not that I care, but where's your stupid puzzle?"

The Pharaoh kept his eyes on the ground, "My puzzle...? Where's my Aibou?!"

"Oh no." Joey prepared himself as the Pharaoh fisted the sky and wailed,

"YUUUUGIIIIIIIIII!"

"There he goes," Joey scratched the side of his head.

"Don't worry, Pharaoh." Tea sat down as she rested her hand on the Pharaoh's shoulder, "I'm sure we'll find some plot hole to bring Yugi back."

The Pharaoh turned to Tea with his mascara already pouring down his cheeks. He sobbed, "Okay, you're right. Whoever is writing this part, I'm sure this will end up with me getting everything I want."

The Pharaoh stood up, "But I'll be dammed if we rescue Yugi only to lose him again in the next season."

"We can sure hope that won't happen…" Tea shrugged.

"Hey, Pharaoh! I win the bet!" shouted Kaiba as his Blue Eyes White Dragon Jet appeared behind him, "Friendship can kiss my ass!"

* * *

Inside the blimp, Melvin got into the control room. One of the panels had been fist –struck by him, which accidentally made the machine work on autopilot. The villain had created another hit song as he moved his shoulders side to side with the tune,

"I'm on a blimp! I'm on a blimp! I don't know how I got here, but I don't care! Cuz' I'm on a blimp! I'm on a blimp! HAHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

The blimp was now high above in the sky.

"Well…there he goes…" Tea looked up.

"Should we ask Kaiba to send in a helicopter for us? I'm not sitting on his lap!" Joey exclaimed.

"We will," assured Tea, "I'm just still trying to figure out how Melvin is such a dumb name for a villain."


	2. Is This Like Saw?

"Wheeeeee!"

Melvin slid across the empty hallways of the blimp with a rolling chair. As he rode, he held out the Rod straight out at his side as he pierced the walls with its sharp end.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

"Ha…hahahaha…"

"Ha….."

"…."

"Well, I'm bored."

The Egyptian returned back to the control room and scanned his eyes over one of the computer screens. Little pictures of a cute blimp and a dashed line to a building suggested that the trip to Domino would take around 5 hours.

"Oh frig," Melvin scratched his forehead, "What do I do now?"

* * *

Melvin had lay down a couple of his cards on the floor and arranged a tower of plastic cups for buildings and ice cubes for people. From his cape, he revealed an egg he had found in the refrigerator and gently rested it on the fake little world of his.

"Then, I'll unleash the power of Mega Ultra Chicken and crash onto these cups, and then I win!"

Melvin crashed the egg against the cups as they rolled on the floor.

"Hehehe…hehe…AAAHHH!" Melvin dragged his eyelids down in frustration with his fingernails, "DANG IT! HOW MUCH LONGER?!"

He stood up from the messy ground and glared at the screen again.

Only 15 minutes had passed.

Melvin dusted away any dirt from his pants and rested both hands on his hips,

"Shoot, I didn't plan this. I knew I should have carried my Gameboy with me…"

The male decided to take a stroll around the rooms in the Kaiba Corp blimp to pass the time. After stabbing all the pillows and all the crates, Melvin went to the Emergency Room. To his surprise, he saw two bodies resting on the beds.

"Fuck, I forgot about them."

One of the patients that were asleep was Mai Valentine. And the other body belonged to Ryou Bakura.

"Well, time to dispose of them to the sharks, I guess…" Melvin spoke, "I wonder if there's a Corpse-Launching Button…"

 _Beep. Beep._

Melvin glanced at the monitor that was reading Ryou's heartbeat. This caused the male to put on a large grin as he produced a brilliant idea in his head.

"Hmm, I do still have 5 hours…who knows…maybe a goose chase can make time go faster…"

He went back to the control room and revealed a duffle bag below the desk. As he unzipped the bag, all the Millennium Items glittered as Melvin hovered his hand towards the Rod.

* * *

 **Darkness**.

Pure **Darkness**.

That's all Ryou could manage to see. He didn't know where he was, or in what direction was he even floating from. But before he could comprehend anything about this strange world, an eye-shaped light opened up above him. Its force pulled the boy upwards like a black hole.

And before he knew it, he found himself in the empty emergency room.

"Oowww." Ryou winced as he tried to pull himself up, "What happened to my arm?" He touched the bandaged area of his arm, but felt no pain from it. Ryou figured whatever happened to his arm was already healed. But then, something much more important took the young boy's full attention.

"I'm hungry."

He went out to investigate, going in and out of rooms and letting his nose guide him. The halls echoed the roars of his stomach as he tried to find his way to the kitchen. The boy didn't even seem to notice he was walking barefoot on the cold ground this whole time.

ZZZZT!

A mysterious static noise made Ryou jump in surprise. As he looked up, he noticed a strange Blue Eyes White Dragon-shaped Speaker. And then Ryou heard breathing coming from the other end.

"Hello, my maze rat! Wanna play a game?"

"Goodness!" Ryou held his palm over his mouth, "Did I get transferred into a Saw movie by accident?"

"Hehehe" The dark voice snickered, "No, you're still on that rich boy's blimp. But now it's MY blimp. And I've got a game to play with you."

"Wasn't I in a coma?" Ryou asked.

The captor's voice broke as he thought of a response. He clicked the button of the speaker system.

"Um…yeah. But I saw that I have about 4 hours until this blimp reaches your city, so I thought-"

"Oh! You're just bored!" interrupted Ryou, "Why didn't you just say so? I have my Gameboy with me! Wanna play with me?"

The Egyptian's eyes glittered like a puppy, "YOU. HAV-"

He stopped himself as he leaned back away from the microphone. He was supposed to sound threatening! What was he doing?

"Um no! You're going to play MY game, little Ryou."

"Aw…" whined Ryou.

"Yes…'aw' is a very good response for a future murder victim…", He spoke sarcastically as he rested his palm on his forehead. Melvin wasn't quite sure he liked this subject, seeing as he kept missing the obvious horror movie tropes of being scared out of their shit.

"So…" Ryou asked, "What is this game?"

Melvin quickly sat forwards as he went back to his puppet master role.

"Easy, I call it: _Try To Survive From Melvin Until He Stabs You_ "

Ryou had his finger up to his chin and wondered in the most innocent voice,

"Who's Melvin?"

Melvin's soul broke that day. He was now thinking up of just tracking his mouse down and ending him right there and then. The speaker made a screeching sound that made Ryou cover his ears,

" _I'M_ MELVIN, YOU FOOLISH FOOL!"

"Oh sorry." The boy giggled, "I was asleep for a long time, you see."

"YOU WEREN'T ASLEEP, YOU WERE DEAD!"

"You know," Ryou wrinkled his nose, "For a kidnapper-saw-dungeon-master guy, you're quite easily ruffled."

"WHO ASKED YOU FOR YOU OPINION?!"

Ryou stayed silent, thinking maybe he might have hurt his captor's feelings. He started to hear heavy breathing from the other line. After a long moment of silence, he heard a slight mumble from Melvin,

"You're worse than Florence."

Zzzt!

The voice from the speaker shut off, and left the boy puzzled.

* * *

Ryou hated this game.

Not for the obvious reason that this game was going to be his death, but because of the poor craftsmanship. His captor wasn't organized; he didn't know if the game had started already, nor did he have any tools or clues on how he could win. If this was really a game, it was rigged for Melvin to chase Ryou down and end it. It was a lose scenario, no chance for Ryou to even make it out alive. Not since Melvin was holding all the cards.

So why was Ryou still alive?

Ryou had to catch his breath. He was running around Kaiba's entire blimp without stopping. All the maps on the walls had been scratched or taken down by Melvin, and Ryou was certain that he was going around in circles. As he took a break, that's where he noticed that he hasn't heard his kidnapper for a very long time. He looked around and spotted a vending machine and decided to hide and crouch behind it. The boy wasn't sure for how long he has been running, and he was almost out of options on what to do. There were no rules and no response from his captor, making him feel very ignored.

Ryou took a deep breath; his hand clung onto the front of his shirt. He was used to having his Ring there, so to just feel his chest through his bit of clothing felt bizarre. After Ryou calmed down, he investigated his surroundings with a clearer mind. On the floor, Ryou spotted a walkie-talkie, probably left by one of Kaiba's men after escaping. He picked the speaker up and examined it for any damage. There didn't seem to be any, so Ryou tilted it up to his face and pressed down the speaker button.

Zzt!

Ryou took a long pause before speaking, "…Melvin?"

The voice from the other line appeared in an instant, "Yeah?"

This caused Ryou to lose his patience, "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?!"

The British boy weighted his hands on each side in a fist,

"Weren't you supposed to chase me?!"

"Oh." Melvin answered as he tried to clean his nails with the tip of his Millennium Rod.

"That." He continued, "No, I just thought you would be boring to chase, so I started doing something els- Hey! You know there's a pool here? In the BLIMP?! Seriously, how big is this thing?"

Ryou smacked his head as he let out a small whine in disappointment. That however, managed to take an interest to Melvin.

"Was that a moan? What? Did you really want me to come down and chase you, little bunny?"

Ryou scoffed, "At least you would have been true to your words…"

Melvin grinned, "I didn't expect that reaction out of you. You're a strange one, aren't you?"

"Takes one to know one…" Ryou sighted. Something clicked in his mind as soon as he heard splashing on the other end of the call, "You said you were at the pool?"

Melvin jumped in surprise as he tried not to fall over from his pink inflatable tube. He quickly grabbed his walkie-talkie before it could come into contact with the water.

He tried to keep his cool, "…no?"

"You are! You just said-"

"Look" Melvin explained, "I'm in no mood for stabbing AT THE MOMENT! After I'm done drinking my mar-ga-ri-TA that I found, I'll start chasing you and kill your throat!"

"Kill my throat?"

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT, CREAMPUFF!"

"Well, I'm tired of running from nothing, I'm hungry and thirsty, and I have a complaint! I'm going to the pool!"

"No you're fucking not!"

"See you there! Make sure you bring a knife!"

"There's no knife in here- Hello? Lab rat? Mouse.?...Creampuff?"

No word from the other boy came, and Melvin cursed under his breath as he held the device under a tight grip.

"Shit."


	3. Hear And Look

"Hello?"

Ryou slid open the door to a massive unlit room. His voice echoed across the area as he stared at the enormous pool in the center of it. One of the only light sources in the scene came from the blue lights under the pool. Over at his right, in a small corner of the room, was a Hawaiian-themed decorated bar. The boy assumed it was where his captor had gotten his margarita. The tiny LED string of orange lights that lit up the bar and the blue glow of the pool made for a calming atmosphere.

Ryou sighed as he curiously stepped closer towards the edge of the pool. He looked around his surroundings, but anything away from the two sources of light was covered in darkness.

"Hello?" Ryou asked, "Mr. Melvin? Are you hiding in here?"

No response came, and Ryou thought Melvin must have left to hide somewhere else. He turned his head at the water and saw his reflection. Finally, he noticed that his hair was a catastrophic mess. He leaned closer to the pool, wondering how long he had been asleep. Suddenly, the water started to move, and a blob figure appeared behind the mirrored Ryou.

"You little shit!"

Ryou quickly turned around and was greeted by Melvin's grip around his arm. The hunter pushed the boy down and landed on him flat on the cold floor.

"I wanted this to last longer…" The shadow whispered as Ryou fidgeted around, "But you had to be persistent, didn't you? With that mouth of yours…"

As one hand kept Ryou down, he used his other hand to close the boy's mouth and prevent him from speaking. Ryou kept struggling in Melvin's hold, trying to yell or say anything.

"It's a shame," Melvin stared away, "I did like you."

Ryou's eyes widened as the gears in his head started to turn rapidly and he figured a way to get out.

Melvin returned his stare back to Ryou, "Now, I have to end yo- AUGH!"

The captor dashed away from the boy and observed at his hand in disbelief, "Did you just lick my hand? What the actual fuck?!"

Ryou took long breaths of air in and out as he tried to crack a small laugh at his victory.

"He…hehehe."

Melvin glance at his prey, "Don't laugh! That's not fair! Who would- Who would do THAT?!"

Ryou rested his arms behind him as he lifted part of his upper body,

"Would YOU do that?" he asked.

"No, I would probably have bitten the whole hand off…" The Egyptian growled as he began to disgustedly wave his hand to get the saliva off. It was such a weird and funny thing to watch that it made the whole danger of the situation lessen.

"I'll be sure to try that next time…" Ryou joked as he finally stood up on his feet.

The danger was over, and that's when Ryou noticed that his captor had nothing but swim trucks with the initials of Kaiba Corp logo on it. Melvin was in panic mode; he was fidgeting and looking around for something to wipe the spit off. It was such an amusing sight that Ryou couldn't help but giggle and actually help him.

"Here," Ryou smiled, "I'll clean it off."

Without permission, the boy took Melvin's wrist as he guided it to Ryou's shirt. The boy wiped the palm of spit with his bit of clothing. Melvin felt so helpless and confused that he just tried to move his head away and not make any eye contact with this cute little bird helping him.

As Ryou finished cleaning up the saliva, something clever popped into his mind. He took Melvin's hand with both of his and shaped it so one of the fingers was pointing at the boy.

Melvin, even more confused as he was, stared at Ryou "What are you-"

"Stab."

"Huh?"

The Egyptian lowered his face down and saw his own finger poking at the boy's chest. He looked up, and met with a sweet warming smile from Ryou. Question marks just kept poking Melvin's head so hard as he tried to figure out what was going on!

"The game!" Ryou finally explained, "It's called: Try To Survive From Melvin Until He Stabs You!"

He lifted the male's hand up to his eye level and a victorious grin spread around the boy's face as his cinnamon-colored eyes shined at Melvin.

"You stabbed me." Ryou concluded, "So the game's over."

* * *

The orange lights from the minibar surrounded them as Melvin kept staring at the boy with an envious frown. There were lots of plates empty with just pieces of chicken wings, arranged like a tower of bones. In contrast with the other male, Ryou had poured himself five scoops of ice cream and spread a delicious trail of chocolate syrup.

"I can't believe this." Melvin grunted.

Ryou stopped dressing his fifth ice cream dish as he remembered the sore loser at his side. He pointed at his ex-captor with a grin, "Your fault for not being specific~"

Melvin's face blushed a little as he turned his head away from Ryou and rested it on his hand.

"This is more embarrassing than that Valentine-Whats-Her-Face…"

"Huh?" Ryou tilted his head, "What did she do?"

Melvin snickered as he stared back at Ryou, "She found the emergency parachute and flew off!"

The male turned his whole body towards Ryou as he imitated Mai being on a parachute. He continued, "And then! Hehehe, she just happens to LAND on an empty raft in the middle of the freaking ocean and just sailed away!"

Melvin held his forehead with his palm as he laughed at the convenience of that situation.

Ryou frowned, "Oh, That's very anti-climatic."

"I know, right?"

"Hmm…" The boy wondered, "We could play again, if you're feeling like a sore loser about it."

"Pff!" Melvin chuckled, "Seriously? Are you even crazier than me?"

"Well," Ryou answered as he scoop one spoon of ice cream and ate it, "If you want this to last longer, we could change up the rules."

Melvin leaned in closer to the dove, "I'm listening…"

"Let's just play Hide and Seek!" The boy cheered.

"Hmm…I do like that fanfic~"

"What?"

"Nothing." The male giggled and got silent as he stared down as his drink. He saw his own reflection staring back at him.

His _own_.

Not Marik's anymore.

He decided to sit here. He was eating and experiencing something on his own. He was having a conversation with someone he decided to have. He was laughing.

"I'm…fine. With whatever this is."

Ryou sat there as he saw the other one clutching his drink and his face hidden between his shoulders. Ryou responded,

"You mean…just sitting here and talking?"

Melvin rose up and tilted his whole body closer to Ryou. His half-lidded eyes were staring at the boy,

"No, just listening and staring~"

Ryou's entire face glowed red. He didn't have any drinks, so he couldn't blame the beverage. So he quickly changed his view towards his ice cream and buried his face.

"I believe this is called Deathshipping," Ryou whispered under his breath, somehow hoping that the other didn't hear that.

"You believe is what now?" said the hunter as he acted like he didn't know the meaning of that word.

"Nothing," Ryou mumbled as he interrupted the route of the conversation by gulping tons of ice cream.

Suddenly, a little alarm started to buzz. Melvin took his watch that was sitting across the table and read it with disinterest.

"Huh. Look at that. Two hours until we reach Domino."

"Wait." Ryou dropped his spoon, "What are you going to do there?"

"Easy, I just…" Melvin looked around and started to set up his plastic cup city and slammed his fist on top of them. He felt visualization was a good way to explain things better.

"I just go there, and destroy the city! Then the world while I'm at it."

Ryou responded, "Why?"

"Why?" Melvin echoed, "Well…Because…Because I'm evil?"

Ryou pointed his spoon at Melvin, "That sounded like a question."

"I…" Melvin's eyes widened with fear. His face seemed lost until he shifted away from his companion once again and snarled in anger, "You ruined it."

"Huh?"

"You ruined it!" Melvin screamed as he sank back lower and lower by each of his own words, "I…I enjoy stabbing people, but you just lick my hand…? And-And I'm sitting here eating ice cream…and laughing…and…"

His cape was already hiding his face. His whole body felt strange. Before, he felt like a shadow puppeteering the body of his weaker self. Now, everything seemed quiet. He could feel the cold draft of the room. He felt his own drops of sweat dropping from his forehead. Melvin had stop talking and stared down at his drink. His reflection became disorienting. He looked away, and realized the whole world was spinning out of his control.

"I feel strange."

He shifted his body on the side until he crashed down on the floor. His arm hit the ice cream bowl on the way and broken it into pieces. The spoons dinged as they collided on the floor when Ryou stood up from his chair. He stared at the collapsed Melvin in shock.


	4. New Destination

Melvin opened his eyes and looked around. He realized he was floating in the middle of a dark room. However, a room would suggest that it would end with walls at one point, but this empty void seemed like it could go on forever. There were some bits of objects floating as well, but they were either broken or halfway erased: stones with Egyptian carvings on them, paper scrolls torn or burned, and pieces of wood from furniture floated around this endless world.

This was his mind room, Melvin come to realize. Or rather, this was Marik's mind room. It used to be a palace, all filled with luxury and gold that would shine so brightly that no shadow could infiltrate it. Now it was all gone from existence, just like the room's host.

Melvin floated down until his foot came into contact with a somewhat-floor like ground. He felt the ground slightly absorbing his foot the longer he stayed still, like black sand swallowing his steps. He saw a broken wooden table blocking his path as it floated around. After he poked it, the piece of wood just gently floated away.

"Hmm, of course…" Melvin lifted his head upwards as he inspected his surroundings, only to be greeted by the same amount of darkness. "This is my room now. Kind of gloomy…" He grinned, "I like it."

Just then, far away behind him, a light popped into existence: A triple-chocolate-fudge-five-topping-ice cream sundae that was the only thing glowing in pure whiteness.

Melvin turned around towards the dessert in confusion, "What…the…"

Suddenly, the room started to shake, as a familiar voice echoed all around him.

" _Melvin?"_

" _Are you okay?"_

" _Hello?"_

" _Helloooo!"_

* * *

Melvin jumped up from his bed as he looked around like he just woke up from a nightmare. His body was shaking as he quickly scanned this new room he wasn't in before he collapsed. As he realized he was on a bed in the emergency room, his body relaxed. Melvin groaned in pain as he held his head on his palms. As his eyes adjusted to the bright lights, he noticed something odd about Ryou.

"What's that face?" Melvin asked.

"W-what?" Ryou responded with a puzzled expression as he was sat on a chair next to his patient. Melvin pointed at the boy,

"That face you're making."

"I…" Ryou closed his eyes and took a long breath. He opened his eyes again and responded, "I thought you weren't going to wake up."

Just then, a crackling sound filled the room. Melvin was laughing uncontrollably for no reason, making Ryou lean back. Melvin's laugh finally ceased and his eyes met the other boy with a threateningly sharp gaze.

"You?" Melvin said in a disgusted tone, "You were worried about me?"

Ryou gulped, but managed to stay calm. He smiled nervously and joked,

"It would be boring not having someone to talk to."

Melvin adjusted his position as he sat on the bed, "I don't know if you're just strange or stupid."

"Hehehe" Ryou giggled, "Believe me. I'm very strange."

"Hmm…" Melvin scratched his head, only to realize something was missing.

"Hey, where's my clock?"

"I took it."

Melvin's mind clicked as he figured something much more important was missing.

"Where's…my Rod?"

His eyes went back to his predatory gaze when he didn't get a response back from Ryou. He wanted to take a few steps forwards, but something yanked him back. He took off the bed sheet and realized that his foot was chained on one of the legs of the bed.

"Where did you even get a chain?" Melvin asked as he nonchalantly tried to pull his foot a few times to check on the quality of the chain.

Ryou shrugged, "I don't know, it's a big blimp. There's a lot of stuff hiding around."

Melvin's patient was growing thin. "What are you trying to accomplish with this?"

However, something about being chained up to bed somehow made the male excited. His eyes were now lidded as he grinned and flicked his tongue,

"Are you going to torture me, little Ryou? Cause I would love seeing you try to make me scream~"

"Um…" Ryou's face was bright red, "No, I don't think this is that type of fanfic…"

Melvin's smile tanked as the boy killed the mood, "So?"

"I…" Ryou answered as he gave him a puppy-eyed look, "I want you to decide not to destroy the city?"

"Kekeke," the being laughed, "You're not going to convince me that easily."

"I figured…"

Ryou stood up from the chair and reached the drawer behind him. He pulled out the Millennium Ring and faced Melvin. Ryou placed the Ring close to his chest, but didn't wear it around his neck.

The boy sighted, "I know that we haven't really met before, but…"

His face changed, almost like Melvin woke up something much more threatening than Bakura within the boy, "But you really hurt my friends. I can't have you hurting anyone else."

The blimp shook and all the lights started to flicker. Melvin grabbed the handle of the bed for balance until the blimp stabilized itself again.

"What did you do?" He threatened.

"I changed the course of the blimp." Ryou answered, "We might end up crashing into a volcano, or a mountain, or probably Disney World if you're lucky."

"Hehehe. I'm quite liking this attitude of yours, Creampuff." Melvin grinned only to return to his threatening mode, "But seriously, once I get out of this bed, you'll regret not killing me here."

"Well, good luck with that, I hid the Items. It will probably take you hours to find them."

"You're really pulling my leg here, creampuff…" Melvin snared.

"Nope!" Ryou booped Melvin's nose, "That's the chain's job."

The Egyptian tried to bite the boy's hand, but Ryou was too quick and avoided his sharp teeth. Melvin shook the bed furiously as he tried to pull off the chain from his foot. Ryou panicked as he ran to the exit and slid out the door behind him. He could hear the other male screaming to get out.

" ! ! !"

* * *

Ryou sealed the door of the emergency room behind him as he heard his patient cursing on the other side. The boy sighted, feeling that maybe this was a dumb plan after all. Ryou lowered down to the ground, and the Millennium ring dinged in contact to the floor on his side. He held it with both of his hands in the air.

 _I can't hear him…_

It felt strange for Ryou. He was so used of the Spirit in the Ring to make some sarcastic comments about everything he did. Or took all his precious Ryou Time so he could either plan to defeat Yugi or just to be in a silly club for villains. Ryou smiled at the memories of Bakura and how Marik always got him to do everything for him. The Spirit would never admit it, but Ryou knew very well of his deep feelings for Marik.

Ryou rubbed his thumb on the surface of the Ring. It really felt empty inside; he used to feel some sort of hum within the item. It sort of felt like a vibration of hot and cold, but now it was plain silent. He didn't really know what to feel. Happy? Cause the Spirit won't use his credit cards to buy more knives from the Internet anymore? Sad? Because Ryou could feel that his Spirit was getting so close in feeling some bit of humanity cause of Marik? And now his ship is probably gone forever?

Just then, Ryou raised his head and noticed that the room behind him stopped yelling for a long time now. Ryou slid the door slowly open and peeked inside. He saw Melvin just spread out on the bed, staring at the light above him. The boy opened the door wider and sneak in to observe closer, not wanting to disturb the other's train of thought. Melvin didn't seem bothered or even looked at Ryou. He kept his eyes on the light above him in a sort of trance-like state.

"It's quiet" Melvin spoke softly.

"Huh?" Ryou asked.

Melvin raised one of his hands above him, blocking the light from hitting his face.

"I was so used in hearing Marik all the time…" The Shadow spoke, "But now, I can't hear him." His hand turned into a fist as he tried to steal away the light from where he rested.

Ryou glanced at the Ring below him and spoke,

"It's a weird feeling, isn't it?"

Melvin turned his head towards the boy, as he showed a star-stroked face. Ryou continued,

"You feel happy for the extra space, but also sad cause it's empty…"

The room grew quiet. Ryou's eyes sink on the Ring, while Melvin kept staring at him back with no response.

Ryou started to chuckle in disbelief towards himself, "Isn't it awful?"

Melvin saw tears started to form around the boy's eyes. But the smile he gave to Melvin caused him so much confusion. Even more confusing, when the Egyptian's body started to mimic his actions.

"Everything is awful." Assured Melvin. This caused Ryou's eyes to widen and stop the crying for a second. Something within Melvin felt warm, and wanted to keep the other from crying.

"We play card games in the risk of dying for Ra's sake! Haven't anyone heard of stabbing? Or punching?"

Ryou giggled some more, and Melvin seemed to be doing it too.

The boy joined in, "You know, Joey could actually take you down. He's not good at card games, but he knows how to flick a knife better than you."

"You take that back!"

"Hehehe"

"That thunder should have killed him, what the actual fuck!"

"Friendship sells." Ryou shrugged.

They both were laughing now and Melvin sneaked a stare as he saw Ryou smiling so sweetly at him. He felt strange in his stomach, but Melvin didn't want to figure out why at the moment. He just didn't want it to stop.

"Don't leave me alone," Melvin spoke.

Ryou stopped laughing and was startled by the change of tone. It didn't sound threatening or as a joke, more like a little kid wanting to keep the nightlight on. Ryou reassured with a smile and closed the door behind him as he dragged a chair next to the bed.

"I won't" Ryou sat down, "I don't want to be alone either."

Ryou searched within his pocket and found his little Gameboy. He leaned closer for Melvin to watch as the sound of the videogame played. The room grew quiet again, only this time, it was accompanied with beeps and boops of the game. Melvin's curious eyes were glued to the screen. However, it didn't take long for the Egyptian to observe the other male next to him. After that, Melvin decided to just stare at Ryou as the other smiled through the whole gaming experience.


End file.
